I had no idea that we had gotten so close to this year’s Dragon*Con. I really wanted to do a big “100 Days to Go!” post, but I haven’t been paying much attention to being fit or to Dragon*Con lately, to be honest.

There’s numerous reasons for that, but they mostly all boil down to me being lazy. If you are the type of person who enjoys hearing excuses, here’s a couple:

– I was on vacation in the mountains for almost 2 weeks. While this involved a lot of walking, it also involved loads of eating “bad” food. Naturally, I gained a few pounds while on vacation, as I typically do.

– After arriving home from vacation, I experienced what felt like jet lag, even though we drove there and back again. This “car lag” led to a cold, which I am suffering through right now. I’m not going to the gym with a cold. Not just because I feel like a run over dog, but because I assume that my fellow JFZ members would not appreciate contracting strep throat from using the ToT after me.

But what I really wanted to talk about is how surprised I was to check the Dragon*Con official website (linked to on the right) and find that the guest list had expanded exponentially since the last time I checked it. It made me wonder who my readership is the most excited about (if there are any of you crickets left out there).

One thing that has me a bit dismayed is the seemingly small number of comics-related guests, versus the preponderance of tv/movie-related guests. I’m hoping that D*C isn’t going the way of Comic*Con by turning into a “pop culture con”. I know I’m not the only one who fears that.

For years now, Dragon*Con has been the true fan’s convention, whereas Comic*Con has slowly turned to promoting television programs that aren’t even genre-related at all. That said, I would jump at the chance to attend Comic-Con one year, if anyone is up for a very long road trip.

Anyway, there are plenty of blogs out there on that subject.

What I wanted to get to is sharing my excitement over some of the guests at this year’s D*C.

So without further ado, here’s my current top-5 Must-See Guests at Dragon*Con this year:

#5. Patrick Stewart

I’ve seen TNG panels before (ok, well, once), but I’ve never seen the Cap. This will probably be a long line. He’s not higher on the list because we left the last TNG panel early because it was boring and we were so far away that we couldn’t see anything.

#4. Cary Elwes

I don’t know if I trust any fantasy fan who isn’t also a huge fan of the Princess Bride.

#3. Anthony Michael Hall

I need Rusty Griswold’s autograph.

#2. Katee Sackhoff

Starbuck was my least favorite character on BSG, but there’s no way I’m missing a BSG panel, especially one with Starbuck on it.

#1. Gimli

In fantasy, there’s lots of things that really get me going.

One of them is dwarves.

The other is sweet beards.

Gimli is going to be at Dragon*Con. I must see him. Plus, check out that lovely pipe. Gimli is a dwarf who can fight, but also clearly appreciates the finer things in life.

So that’s it. My current top 5. You’ll notice that they are all from the tv/movie category. That’s because I don’t give two fucks about some asshole who did 6 issues of some X-Men series I’ve never heard of and is probably bad, or some jackanape who wrote bad Star Wars novels one time(though I wouldn’t mind seeing Timothy Zahn).

Like I said, the selection of non-tv and non-movie guests is, so far, disappointing. Bring back Neal Adams! Bring back Mike Mignola! Bring back SHAG, and Stan Lee and Neil Gaiman!

So, who are you looking forward to the most??? Even if you aren’t attending this year, who would you be most excited about (here is the guest list, fyi)???

Also, I wanted to link this: Dragon*Con Membership Newsletter. It’s an entertaining preview of what is currently being planned for D*C 2012. I’m looking forward to once again attending the party at the Georgia Aquarium, because there’s not much that is more fun than a bunch of drunk nerds eyeballing the beluga whales.

3 Responses to D*C 2012 Guest List Excitement!

John Rhys-Davies, for sure. Time permitting, Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake became my new fantasy woman before the end of the first chapter of The Laughing Corpse), Cary Elwes and Levar Burton; just for the sake of shaking his hand for Reading Rainbow.